16
September 2025

September Lecture and AGM.

Welcome to The Arts Society Isle of Man
Tuesday, September 16, 2025 - 11:15
Manx Museum Theatre
Kingswood Grove Douglas IM1 3LY
Online Event

Fashionable Folds : The Fan as the ultimate fashion accessory.

Fans have been used for millennia, principally for cooling but also for religious and ceremonial purposes. In Europe, they later developed into a ubiquitous accessory for the fashionable elite. Fans were produced to commemorate births, marriages and deaths, were decorated with scenes of love and pastoral scenes of idyllic aristocratic life. This lecture explores not only the rise of the folding fan in Europe as fashion’s most statement-worthy accessory but also the artistry and craftsmanship of fan making in relation to the changing fashionable trends in dress throughout Europe from the 16th to the 20th century. 

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Scott Schiavone

Scott William Schiavone is a Fashion Historian and Curator. Scott is both University of Glasgow and London College of Fashion alumni having graduated from the MA (Hons) History of Art and MA Fashion Curation in 2004 and 2010 respectively. Scott has worked with fashion and textile collections across the UK including Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland and The Fan Museum in Greenwich. Scott recently relocated to Preston to join the Curatorial team leading the HarrisYourPlace project at The Harris Museum & Art Gallery, a £10.4 million Heritage Lottery Funded project that will transform The Harris into a community lead centre for arts and culture. In 2020, Scott launched his YouTube channel Fashion &… which now has over 4,500 subscribers. Scott is interested in manifestations of luxury and excess across the fashion timeline. His areas of expertise are nineteenth century womenswear, marginalised social histories of fashion, the 1970s and 80s and the rise of the superstar designer.